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Air’s Champagne Parlor is All About the Bubbly
Beer, wine and even cider bars abound in NYC, but Air’s Champagne Parlor is one of the few area drinkeries devoted to bubbly. To be fair, the Riddling Widow briefly preceded it, but owner Ariel Arce was actually beverage director during its tenure, as well as Birds & Bubbles before that, and Chicago’s Pops for Champagne (not to mention Grant Achatz’s exclusive, original The Office) before that. Meaning her reputation as queen of Cuvèe absolutely proceeds her.
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Where to Celebrate Oktoberfest 2017
If you’re already mourning the loss of summer, Oktoberfest is a reliable way to get you over the hump. Essentially spanning the duration of fall (kicking off on September 16th this year & extending all the way to October 31st, allowing revelers to seamlessly transition to Halloween), the 16 to 18-day festival is a giddy saturnalia of German culture…
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Spotlight on the Finalists for the 2017 Vendy Awards
As a fun challenge to the James Beard Awards, the Vendy ceremony — now in its 13th year — is dedicated to honoring the very best in street food. So here’s who’s in the running during the September 16th event at Governors Island; from an artisanal twinkie baker to an upstart french toast sandwich maker, to a Chinese meat skewer purveyor, whose been tapped for the Vendy Cup…
Most Recent Dish
Egg Poacher
In case you haven’t noticed, poached eggs are no longer just a breakfast food. Some chefs serve them on polenta, others over a frisee salad, or even a sirloin steak. Poached eggs are deceptively tricky. They often stick to the poacher or break while removing them from the boiling water. You shouldn’t have to go out to get a perfectly poached egg. We finally found a solution (pictured right). Egg Poacher...
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Thanksgiving To-Go
What’s not to love about Thanksgiving? It’s that one day of the year that’s almost entirely dedicated to eating. Of course, there’s football games and parades, but we give particular thanksor the smorgasbord of food that awaits us. But for many of us, cooking the entire meal from appetizers to dessert can be daunting if not down right unrealistic. Fear not, because there are plenty of places to pick up turkeys, sides, phenomenal pies, or even entire meals around...
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All Things Fried For Fall
What is it about fried foods that make them so irresistible? We’re helpless in the face of warm, golden french fries, freshly fried beignets or chicken. Lately, we’ve noticed that chefs have gotten rather imaginative with what they’ll dunk in the fryer. How about fried pizza, bacon, or macaroni and cheese? While some of them may sound like a bad idea, the adage holds true: anything tastes better fried. ChipShop 383 5th Avenue (at 6th Street) Brooklyn, NY 11215...
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Destination Dining: Harlem
Harlem is getting a lot of attention these days as one of New York’s most up and coming neighborhoods. New apartment buildings, shops, and the newly opened Aloft Hotel are attracting more residents and visitors everyday. Back in 1999, the Zagat’s New York City Restaurant Guide didn’t even give Harlem a mention in its location section. Ten years later, in 2011, the latest Zagat listings include 35 Harlem restaurants with French, Italian, Mediterranean, New American and soul food offerings. ...
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Dishpotting: Zoe's Grilled Octopus
It’s strange how some restaurants manage to remain under the radar these days. You’d think what with twitter, facebook, food magazines, newspapers, and a billion food blogs that it would be next to impossible. You can find a quick blurb about the opening of Zoe on Grub Street as well as a restaurant listing on Metromix, but there should be much more buzz around this newcomer. Zoe opened on the Lower East Side in August in the former...
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New York’s Best Fall Pies
First, the food forecasters said fried chicken was the new burger and pies are the new cupcakes. We think there’s room for allof the above, but pie season is in full swing right now and we couldn’t be more excited by the possibilities this fall. We appreciate old school pies, like the apple and pumpkin pies from Bubby’s, just as much as Four and Twenty Blackbirds modern bourbon pear and caramel apple pies. Pies-n-Thighs has a winning concord grape pie with an...
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Catch's Dungeness Crab Tagliatelli
Some restaurants are all about the scene, while others have great food and no scene at all. We respect a good crowd, but if we had to choose between them, we’d opt for excellent food. But once in awhile, a restaurant comes along that’s just the right combination of scene and cuisine.This fall, it’s Catch, a new, three-story seafood spot in the Meatpacking District. When you consider the owners also run Abe & Arthur’s and Tenjune, it’s no surprise...
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A Measuring Cup & Scale In One
Anyone who’s ever tried to bake a cake or get a chocolate souffle to rise knows that cooking and baking are two very different skills. You might be able to eye ball measurements for a wine sauce, but certainly not a cake. (Or you may end up with a pancake.) And if you’re really serious about cooking, you know you not only have to factor in measurements, but also the weight of ingredients. As the New York Times recently pointed...
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Dripless Turkey Baster
As crazy as it sounds, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. (Although, we’re still having a hard time getting out of summer mode.) You might want to start thinking about this year’s menu. If you’re like most Americans, this is a holiday you take very seriously. Everyone’s always trying to raise the bar on their gravy, cranberry sauce, and apple pie. But really nothing is more important the bird with its crispy skin and moist interior. The key to...
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Fall To-Do Dining List
We’re all about trying new things, new dishes and new restaurants. But we have a few favorites we return to every season because they’re too good to miss, like 60-year old Veselka and its beef borscht. We discovered the West Village’s new dim sum spot, Red Farm, and its killer rib eye steak as well as Baohaus’ new Union Square outpost and its fluffy bao buns filled with everything from chicken to tempura broccoli. There’s too many list at...
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Halloween Eats & Sweets
So we’re too old to go trick or treating. That doesn’t mean we can’t get into the Halloween spirit and eat our way through the holiday. There’s a slew of creative sweets to indulge in this month far beyond M & M’s & mini-snickers bars. If you thought Serendipity’s hot chocolate was over the top, you should see their “Cookies and Scream” sundae. And just down the street Dylan’s Candy Bar has a Haunted Halloween sundae of their own with pumpkin ice cream and candy...
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Mini-Cupcake Maker
We know pies are the new cupcakes and cupcakes are by no means the most chic sweet these days. But we’re still a sucker for Baked By Melissa’s minis because you can maximize your flavors. Instead of one cupcake, you can try four different minis, which is why we fell for this mini-cupcake maker. How cool would it be to make your own minis, so you can eat them warm and fresh from the oven? You can be as...
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Dishspotting: The Best Thing I Ate This Week
We’re launching a new column called, Dishspotting: The Best Thing I Ate This Week because some discoveries are too good to keep to yourself. We know you don’t always want to sit for a big meal or make dinner a night long event. So instead of highlighting restaurants, we’re spotlighting dishes, many of which you can grab during the day or even to-go. This week, we have the pleasure of sharing ABC Kitchen’s divine concord grape tart. We first...
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In Fall Fashion: Peruvian Food
Maybe it’s wrong, but we’re always a little skeptical about fusion. Some traditions just weren’t meant to be mixed. While it might sound like an oxymoron, Peruvian cuisine is an authentic fusion. Glance at a Peruvian menu and you’ll discover Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and African influences. Peru’s a melting pot of sorts with over five hundred years under its belt to integrate those countries flavors and ingredients into one cuisine. Take lomo saltado for example. This traditional dish...
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Halloween Entertaining
We’re big fans of Halloween. What’s not to love about dressing up in costume and demanding candy from strangers? But as we get older and exceed the trick or treat age limit, we need to find other ways to celebrate. So we usually throw our own Halloween party, and the food has to keep with the theme, of course. We went hunting for festive kitchen supplies and we found quite a few at Sur La Table. While we usually...
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Our Favorite Fall Cocktails
I love summer for many reasons, but fall is my favorite food season. It’s always exciting to find concord grapes, figs, and apples used in inspired ways in autumn dishes, but sometimes it’s even more interested to see fall flavors on cocktail menus. Nowadays, bartenders are as serious about libations as chefs are about dinner. Take Rye for example. This Williamsburg eatery has been awaiting the return of fall, so they could tap into all of the spirits they’ve...
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First Bite: Fatty Cue Manhattan
While we’ve been spending lots of time in Williamsburg checking out all of the great new restaurants, one of our favorite Brooklyn eateries did an about-face, opening a second location in Manhattan. Zak Pelaccio caught everyone’s attention when he opened a Southeast Asian bbq joint called Fatty Cue. And now you don’t have to leave the island of Manhattan to try his brisket with red chili jam, coriander bacon, and spare ribs. The space formerly known as Fatty Johnsons,...
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Wine Aerator
We’ve been around the block. This isn’t the first wine aerator we’ve seen, but it is the first one we’ve seen with a built-in strainer. And that comes in very handy when you get cork in the bottle or natural sediment forms in a bottle of finely aged wine. This wine aerator also has a non-drip pourer, and stopper so you don’t have to fuss with lots of gadgets or a decanter. Instead, you can aerate your red wine...
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